Life of Pi

Forgive me if this is a repeat, but I have been following the announcement that Jeunet will be filming Life of Pi. After reading the book, I wondered how the more imaginative scenes towards the end of the book would be filmed. I suppose we are going to find out. A whimsical montage that chronicles some of the animal stories in the introduction should be right up his alley.

I am right there with you. The book almost ground to a halt when I came to those chapters and I can't wrap my head around what that would look like in film. The end of the Island bit could be fantastically disturbing if done correctly. It seems though that Jeneut's great sense of pacing will force him to adapt that scene in a way that makes it much more useful.

EXCLUSIVE: 'Life Of Pi' next for Ang LeeAng Lee has confirmed that his next movie will be an adaptation of Yann Martel's Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life Of Pi for Fox 2000. . . .Lee noted that the project is still at the scripting stages and he hasn't started thinking about who will play the lead character, Indian boy Piscine 'Pi' Molitor Patel. . . .DigitalSpy.com, October 28

Life of Pi Seeks Fox Green Light with Ang Lee Directing in 3-DGabler and the filmmakers are lining up a big budget well north of $70 million for a 3-D magical fantasy adventure crammed with visual effects. There’s a shipwreck, the ship sinks, and a teenage boy is launched overboard and climbs into a life raft with a zebra, hyena and a tiger. There are many CG animals (whales, fish, meercats) plus ocean and atmosphere. “It has a gigantic visual effects component,” says Gabler. “You can’t put a live tiger in a boat with a child. It has elements of Castaway, when the kid is alone in the boat. You don’t need language to convey what’s on the screen. We need to make the movie for the whole world.”Anne Thompson, April 28

'Life of Pi' suffers another blowEXCLUSIVE: Speaking of difficult books and the development challenges that accompany them, here comes another example, and it's a high-profile one."Life of Pi," Yann Martel's bestselling Booker Prize winner that has had more development go-rounds than a male Bengal tiger has mates, may be on its way back to the development cage. Eclectic director Ang Lee had been set to shoot the movie, possibly even in 3-D, but budget concerns appear to be putting the project on hold.Lee and producer Gil Netter have returned to Fox 2000 with a budget that sources say is too high for the studio division. (A recent Indiewire piece put it in the $70 million range.)The filmmakers can still reconfigure the budget, but until they do, the film isn't moving forward. . . .Los Angeles Times, May 27

Indian teen newcomer gets 'Life of Pi' leadFox 2000's bigscreen adaptation of Yann Martel's tome "Life of Pi" is at last rowing off to sea, with Ang Lee set to start lensing the fantasy adventure early next year.After a monthslong search during which 3,000 young men auditioned, Lee has cast 17-year-old newcomer Suraj Sharma in the title role. Sharma is a student who lives with his mathematician parents in Delhi, India. Fox will release the pic on Dec. 14, 2012."Life of Pi" will be Lee's first 3D pic and utilize state-of-the-art technology in rendering the adventure tale.Lee will direct from a script by David Magee ("Finding Neverland"). Lee begins principal photography in January in Taiwan and India. . . .Variety, October 25

The new Life of Pi: onscreen, in 3-DWhen the film version of Life of Pi comes out in late 2012 (in 3-D!), watch for the scene where the older Piscine ‘Pi’ Molitor Patel (Irrfan Khan), now living in Canada, tells his amazing tiger tale to a journalist (Tobey Maguire). In the background, across a pond, there’s a man sitting on a bench, writing notes. That’s Life of Pi author Yann Martel, who shot his cameo in Montreal last month as the international production finally wrapped, after more than 100 days of shooting.“They invited me to be an extra,” said Martel from his home in Saskatoon, where he is busy with a newborn (Lola) and a toddler (Theo). “It was quite fun.” . . .Martel says that under Lee’s direction, he expects the technology will contribute to, rather than overshadow, the storytelling. “The danger of 3-D would be I guess that it looks spectacular, but it feels hollow. That’s why I was happy to have someone like Ang Lee, who is too sensitive a director and too ambitious to want to do something that just looks good but is clunky and has no heart.” . . .Martel also spoke with Maguire. “He was interested in knowing my state of mind when I wrote Life of Pi,” says Martel, who took a call from Maguire after the Spider-Man star signed onto the project. Maguire also asked to see photos of Martel’s influential travels in India. They met in person for the first time in Montreal and the author was amused to see Maguire looking a bit like him, with curlyish hair and a few days’ growth of facial hair.“Considering very few people know what I look like, it was funny to have them make that effort,” said Martel. . . .Globe and Mail, July 6